COPING: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
Coping at multiple stages in the stress process
In models of the stress and coping process, coping is typically positioned between the individual's
appraisal of stress and health-related outcomes. That is, individuals who appraise a situation or
event as stressful engage in coping activities, which either have a direct effect on health, or moderate
the relationship between appraised stress and health (Wheaton, 1985). While this approach captures
important mechanisms by which coping may affect health, it ignores other viable pathways. For
instance, coping may intervene prior to the appraisal of stress, thereby preventing the appraisal of
a situation or event as stressful. This form of coping is evidenced in some forms of bias and distortion
found in self-report data, which some research workers have labelled as measurement error.
However, these biases and distortions may be evidence of palliative coping processes (Lazarus &
Launier, 1978); an explicit study of these biases and distortions as a form of coping would improve
our understanding of the coping process (Kasl & Cooper, 1987). Alternately, coping may occur
after deleterious health outcomes have been realized. For example, an executive under stress may
refrain from engaging in coping activities until after the manifestation of coronary heart disease.
These examples illustrate the multiple stages in the stress process in which coping may occur. Future
models of stress and coping should include these multiple pathways and evaluate their relative
contribution to the reduction of stress and the improvement of health.
The stress of coping
Current stress and coping research focuses primarily on the stress-reducing effects of coping. While
coping may, indeed, reduce stress, the implementation of a coping strategy may also serve as a
source of stress (Cohen et al. 1986). For example, some coping strategies may be inherently aversive
to the individual, such that their implementation may produce stress and damage health. Similarly,
the failure of a coping strategy per se may function as a source of stress, particularly when the
individual is ego-involved in the success of the coping strategy and wants it to succeed for its own
sake. Alternatively, the process of deciding which coping strategy to implement may tax an
individual's cognitive abilities, producing stress. Further, the implementation of a coping strategy
may deplete adaptive energies, making the individual vulnerable to additional stressful encounters*
(Cohen, 1980; Dubos, 1968; Selye, 1956). As depicted by these examples, the coping process itself
may serve as an important source of stress, and attention to the stress of coping will improve our
overall understanding of the impact of coping on health.
The determinants of coping
In research on coping, investigators focus primarily on the effects of coping on stress and health,
paying little attention to determinants of coping. As a result, we know little about the process by
which individuals select and implement coping strategies. Several possible processes may be
identified. For example, the individual may carefully evaluate the potential costs and benefits of
available coping strategies and implement one which is evaluated as most likely to reduce stress and
improve health (Janis, 1974; Janis & Mann, 1977; Spivack et al. 1976). In some cases, this process
will result in the selection and implementation of a viable coping strategy, while in other cases the
costs of all available coping strategies may exceed their benefits, prompting the individual to abstain
from coping. Though the research worker may consider such abstinence puzzling and maladaptive,
it may make perfect sense to the individual, given the perceived costs and benefits of the available
coping strategies. While individuals may employ this apparently rational decision-making process
in some cases, in other cases they may employ nonrational processes, relying on heuristics, biases,
and habits in the selection and implementation of coping strategies (cf. Behling et al. 1975; Staw &
Ross, 1985; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974; Wahba & House, 1974). Given the deleterious effects of
stress on decision-making processes (Cohen, 1980), it is likely that these nonrational processes are
often used. Future research should attempt to identify the various processes by which individuals